BlogLine

What Are The Ethical Rules For Legal Blogs In California?

2/1/19

By: Greg Fayard

If you are a California lawyer and are thinking about starting a blog, keep these points in mind:

  1. Blogging by an attorney may be a communication subject to the requirements and restrictions of the Rules of Professional Conduct and the State Bar Act relating to lawyer advertising if the blog expresses the attorney’s availability for professional employment directly through words of invitation or offer to provide legal services, or implicitly through its description of the type and character of legal services offered by the attorney, detailed descriptions of case results, or both.
  2. A blog that is an integrated part of an attorney’s or law firm’s website will be a communication subject to the rules and statutes regulating attorney advertising to the same extent as the website of which it is a part.
  3. A stand-alone blog by an attorney, even if discussing legal topics within or outside the authoring attorney’s area of practice, is not a communication subject to the requirements and restrictions of the Rules of Professional Conduct and the State Bar Act relating to lawyer advertising unless the blog directly or implicitly expresses the attorney’s availability for professional employment.
  4. A stand-alone blog by an attorney on a non-legal topic is not a communication subject to the rules and statutes regulating attorney advertising and is not subject thereto simply because the blog contains a link to the attorney or law firm’s professional website. However, extensive and/or detailed professional identification information announcing the attorney’s availability for professional employment will itself be a communication subject to the ethical rules and statutes.

See California Rules of Professional Conduct 7.1 and 7.2 and Business and Professions Code sections 6157-6159.2; State Bar of California Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct, Formal Opinion Interim No. 12-0006.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Greg Fayard at gfayard@fmglaw.com.